Story 10/10
The story of Shitcom is an idea that has never been explored before; or rather, it deals with the reaction of society when your body starts to malfunction. To put it more concisely - when you have intestinal problems and your shit starts to fall from your mouth.
In that way, the name of this show is incredibly apt to the nature of the material. I give the story a 10 for its revolutionary take on anime story telling.
Art 10/10
Rather than going for the classic 2D art style we find in most anime, Shitcom opts for a much more realistic style that resembles dolls. You
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May 8, 2015
Clannad: After Story
(Anime)
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It's been a while since I watched Clannad After Story. It was only after watching an AMV on Youtube and realizing that every scene of After Story has sent a shiver through me that I realized just how much of an effect After Story had on me.
As most of you probably know, this show is the second season of Clannad. While Clannad is arguably worse, DO NOT SKIP IT, since the character development in the first season is absolutely necessary for you to enjoy this show to its fullest. tl;dr With absolutely brilliant character development and story progression, Clannad After Story is the prefect example of ... an emotional story done right, with only a few minor flaws. Story - 9 Clannad After Story starts off right where Clannad ended, with Okazaki and Nagisa beginning their new relationship. The first ten episodes all take place within the same highschool with the same likeable characters from the first season. However, while it still carried the familiar charm of the first season, these initial ten episodes were by far the weakest in the series. It felt as though the show was just trying to redo what it had already been done. The jokes seemed a little less funny and I was enjoying myself a little less. So why did I still rate the story a 9? It's because after the tenth episode, the show ventures into territory few other anime have dared to explore - life after school. Clannad After Story doesn't restrict itself to the high school grounds - the you see Okazaki struggle to find a job, to earn a living, to live on his own. You see how life treats him as a single worker, working a menial job, with few luxuries to comfort him. Watching his life after education was an experience like no other anime had offered me ever before, and I was mesmerized. Art - 9 Not much to say here. KyoAni is well known for dishing out beautiful animation, and it has had a lot of experience in this area (with similar works being Kanon and Air). The show looks great, and the snow, a recurring theme in the story, looks absolutely beautiful. Sound - 10 The Clannad Soundtrack is the soundtrack that made me realize the true beauty of anime music, and led me to appreciate instrumentals as a whole. From beautiful piano solos to its masterful use of ethereal sounds, this soundtrack is by far my favourite of any I have listened to. If I had to point out any fault at all, it would be the fact that some songs seem a bit too long, but it didn't bother me too much. My personal favourite is Shionari, or Roaring Tides. While I am not a fan of dubs in general, I must say that the Clannad dub seems worse than most other dubs I came across, so I would definitely recommend the sub for this show. Character - 9 Removing the larger cast of characters for the majority of the show ended up being a boon. It allowed the show to expand upon Okazaki's relationship with Nagisa, allowing us to see them understand each other and appreciate each other more as the show goes on. We see Okazaki cope with the hurdles that life throw at him, and we see Nagisa supporting him throughout. We see Okazaki mature and learn to forgive those he had earlier treated with contempt. We see his mannerisms change as he learns how to adapt into adult society. We see his life progress as he finally matures from the sarcastic adolescent he once was to the responsible adult that he should be. And throughout, you see the both tragic and euphoric events that shape his life to become what it is now. This is perhaps the best part of After Story. While Okazaki's character development is definitely something to admire, Nagisa, on the other hand receives comparitively less. This could do witht he fact that Okazaki is the protagonist of the show; however, seeing Nagisa grow from her fragile emotional state to someone who could stand up for herself is a dream only half realized, and the sole reason that I deducted one point in this category. Enjoyment - 9 Before watching Clannad + After Story, I watched Anohana. I saw people posting online about how much they had cried at the ending, how much the final scenes had affected them. However, when I finished the series, I only felt a slight twinge. It was powerful, yes, but not powerful enough to make me cry. Perhaps I was closed off to the emotions of the show I was watching? Maybe so. So when I found a tear rolling down my face while watching After Story, I was surprised. That, above all, is a testament to the sheer power and brilliance this show embodies. I never cried because of an anime before After Story, and I doubt I ever will again. Final Verdict - 9 Apart from those weak ten episodes, and not much character development for Nagisa, Clannad After Story is the closest to a perfect show you can ever find, and perhaps the greatest romance show I have ever watched. SPOILERS The Ending.... Those of you who have watched the show may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the ending, which is cursed all across the internet. The reason is - I thought it was a pretty good ending. Yes, I said it. Most people were angered by the fact that they felt like it destroyed the whole point of the show. I admit that I was taken by surprise by the ending, and I was a little annoyed. But above all, I was relieved. Throughout the show, while I watched Okazaki suffer, the only thing I was sure of was that Okazaki, Nagisa, and their family deserved a happy end. Well, the ending of After Story gave them one, and that was enough for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 7, 2015
Angel Beats!
(Anime)
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Angel Beats! (never forget the exclamation mark) is the second Key adaptation that I've ever seen, after Clannad, which sets the bar extremely high, because I enjoyed Clannad a lot. Disregarding the amount of pressure that put on Angel Beats!, it was easy to spot certain similarities; as with all Key adaptations (or so I've heard) there's an amount of romance, drama, and action all blended into one piece.
Now, onto the main part: Story (7/10) Story? What story? That would be my initial, and truest reaction if someone asked me about the story in this anime. That's not to say it has no story; just that it's ... kind of...pushed to the back in the face of whatever the heck is happening in the now. So, the entire anime takes place in a highschool, because wherever you go, you have to be in highschool. And this isn't just a normal highschool. It's a Highschool of the Dead. (I'm still not sure why exactly I watched that anime in the first place.) No literally speaking, it is a Highschool of the Dead; where people with especially unfulfilling lives where circumstances prevented them from living out their youthful lives, that is, something happened to them that didn't allow them to live their lives to the fullest at the prime of their lives. These people get sent to the Highschool with two options: live a normal student's life and disappear from the world to be reborn as a barnacle (inside joke, sorry) or to rebel against the school and the idea of the world as a whole, and remain in the highschool. These people rebel against the Student Council President of the school, Tenshi (literally Angel), named so because the rebels belive her to be an angel from God making sure that all the rules are followed in the world. This gang of rebels, originally called the 'Afterlife Battlefront' before being cycled through increasingly idiotic names before coming back to the 'Afterlife Battlefront' is a gang of misfits, headed by an obviously insane girl called Yurippe. It is in this group that you find your classic gorup of people: an intelligent guy (who apparently isn't smart at all), the airhead who keeps having violent fits, the useless guy, a silent ninja girl who keeps saying 'How unwise', the main character's best friend, and a singer. The main character, Otonashi, died and now suffers from amnesia, meaning that he can't remember anything about his life or how he died. That again, makes another sub-plot. Another interesting idea was that if people's life goals are fulfilled, that is if their regrets from past life are gone, they can pass on, or disappear. The beginning half is relatively light hearted, action packed, and genuinely fun; the second part, when Otonashi makes it his goal to help others realize their dreams, is what should've shone out in the show, but ended up being what damaged the show the most. Characters (6/10) For such a small anime - 13 episodes, or 14.5 to be exact - Angel Beats! has an incredibly large cast, which proves to be both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because each member of the cast is intertaining in their own way, bringing fun to the screen. And disappointing because most of them don't get the screen time, or the development, that they deserve. For example: We have Yurippe Nakamura, the pretty magenta (?) haired girl who leads the Afterlife Battle front, who gets around ten minutes dedicated to her admittedly horrible life, but we are never told how she dies (unless that was a hint..who knows). On the other hand we have Shima, the pretty blue haired girl who rarely speaks and loves to balance things on her finger. She gets absolutely no backstory at all. Then we have Masami Iwasawa, the pretty red haired (some pattern here?) girl who is an incredible singer, and incredible guitar player, and has an incredible back story that helps you understand her more. The time when she disappeared was one of the most emotional moments of Angel Beats!, in my opinion, along with the beautiful song that accompanies it. Our main character, Yuzuru Otonashi, gets the most backstory, with nearly two episodes dedicated to telling us his story. His story, while it is quite emotional, failed to touch me the way Iwasawa's did and in the end I was just left feeling a little sad, not much more. Depressingly, Otonashi as a whole remains an almost entirely one dimensional character. He has similar attributes to most anime characters nowadays, lacks a characteristic wit, and at times seems too selfless to seem believable. I believe this to be one of the major flaws of Angel Beats!. And then once again, there's fan-favourite TK. This guy gets no character development at all. Literally none. All we know is that he keeps dancing and blurting out random English phrases. Hell, we don't even know what his real name is or even why he tells everyone to call him TK. In fact, as far as I remember, only six characters even get development: Otonashi, Yurippe, Iwasawa, Hinata (Otonashi's best friend), and Yui (annoying cat girl); not to mention Tachibana Kanade (Tenshi) somewhat. Of those, I never really liked Yui much, but her story was pretty interesting; Yurippe's felt rushed; Otonashi's was pretty good; and Tachibana's was bare-bones. Of the six, I only found two actually making me feel anything. So basically, all of the other characters exist for the sole reason of comic relief. Not to say these guys don't; they do, it's just that they get some development of some sort. Another thing I would like to point out is the extreme emphasis on the main character. He's always present in every single mission, and he's always the last man standing, along with Yurippe. While it does make sense to make him last throughout each mission, why can't there be anyone else accompanying him? I remember one time, it was him, Yuri and Yui (this was before Yui's episode by the way) and I felt happy thinking 'finally, someone else joined in the last stand'. Then Yui was sent conveniently sliding into a pillar and it was up to Otonashi and Yurippe again. The monotony. Presentation (8/10) To make this easier on myself, this is going to include animation, music, and how the show is presented. The animation in this show is fairly good, and on the whole it is quite pretty; just don't expect any 'wow!' ing moments like you might in Anohana or Sword Art Online. Where the animation fluidity really shines, though, is when the Afterlife Battlefront takes on Tenshi with guns. Action sequences are extremely fluid and a joy to watch. On another note, I don't think the story itself gives the animation many more chances to shine. Music is more in the background than I expected; unlike Clannad, I never really noticed any track standing out. That is, of course, ignoring the absolutely brilliant opening song. And those of you you don't really like the ending, I assure you, you'll warm up to it by the end of the show. I promise. Unlike any other anime I've seen (no I haven't seen K-On) Angel Beats! has a large number of tracks that are used during the show itself, performed by Girls DeMo (Girls Dead Monsters). Each one of thse songs are good in their own way, and often are extremely catchy. My favourite is still the one Iwasawa sings before her disappearence. Each episode follows the normal anime tradition of around 25 inutes; however, I noticed that most shows have 24 minute long episodes while Angel Beats! is around 26 minutes. What I didn't like is that given the small amount of episodes, you would expect more story-based episodes throughout the show. However, most of the anime is semi-filler, and new occurrences keep the flow going even though they take it further from what it was supposed to be. Apart from these, an important point to mention is comedy. Many things chainge in Angel Beats! throughout the series, but the comic relief is superb and never fails to entertain. While at the beginning I thought that the jokes felt forced, I an incident involving two words completely changed my mindset: Rocket Chairs. Wait till you reach that episode. I can't believe how much I laughed during that one. The comedy ends up being the same gag repating itself in different situations (Call me Chr-) which helps add to the comedy, but at times can seem extremely repetitive. As for emotion, well, I'm not sure what to say. Compared to Clannad: After Story, the emotion level in this show is less. At times the show tries to make you feel sad, but it didn't really work on me; at other times, it tries to make emotion twists, but ends up digging an enormous plot hole for itself. What I would've loved for this show was to have it follow a new direction, after Otonashi decides that he wants to help fulfill everyone's dreams. The show shines most when it talks about its characters and their histories; however, the show shoots off randomly into a strange path that isn't half as good as it could've been. It changes a perfect idea into something else that provides no character development at all. As for the ending...well, it was supposed to be emotional, and it kind of was (and it probably would've left me feeling sad if it wasn't for the epilogue) but I ended up feeling more emotion from the pure brilliance of Otonashi's voice actor than anything else. The romance in this show is hurried and underdeveloped to the point that it makes no difference to you, which probably hurt the anime the most. Final Verdict (8/10) Angel Beats! is a perfect example of what could've been. It has a simple, beautiful concept; and yet it strays from this concept with half thought out ideas. It has an interesting and eccentric character cast; and yet it ignores almost all of these characters. The way the series ended (not just the final moments) wasn't very satisfying at all, and felt rushed, just like the last few episodes of the anime. The main character is fun enough, but lacks any characterizing features, the polar opposite of the much more likeable Okazaki of Clannad whose prankster and sarcastic attitude entertained me endlessly. The only thing consistenly good about the anime is its hilarity This is an anime that could've been infinitesimally better if it was given more time. Even with all these flaws it has the world at its feet; imagine if they were rectified.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 7, 2015 Recommended
WARNING: Contains minor spoilers
Could you...forgive the killing of people? Are there cases when killing is absolutely necessary? Does killing to ensure your own survival come under self-defence? Can it be justified? In other words, if you had to kill the people around you in order to live, would it be a crime? I have no doubt that right now, the answer is clear and obvious to all of you. It would be better to die than to kill an innocent person to live. Let me ask you another question. If vampires existed, and they killed the people around you in order to live, would it be a sin? ... No doubt it would. Then how can we justify our slaughter of farm animals to satisfy our own hunger? Isn't that too, a crime? Perhaps even more heinous, as we do not need meat in order to survive. So why is it that killing of people by vampires is considered such an atrocity? This, my reader, is the world of Shiki. A world where vampires exist, people exist, and you are never sure who is wrong or right. It's been a long time since I've had to question the morality of both sides in an anime, and the feeling that was inspired in me after I finished this great series was simply amazement. Story (8/10) Western Literature has seen a great up rise in vampire literature ever since the advent of Twilight. Gone are the vampires that used to haunt our nightmares; they are replaced by romanticized figures that often fall in love with mortals rather than hunt them. Some traditionalists, like myself, long for the days of Dracula, when vampires were who they are supposed to be. Salem's Lot, Stephen King's amazing take on the original Dracula, was the first book that got me thoroughly interested in vampire literature; and since I haven't read the whole of Bram Stoker's novel, I'm going to have to compare Shiki with the occurrences in Salem's Lot, which may be my second favourite horror novel of all time, behind The Shining of course. Shiki takes place in a mostly isolated village, where the people are peaceful and easy going, maintaining their traditional lifestyle even as the world around them advances rapidly. The first episode introduces us to Shimizu Megumi, a pink haired girl who hates everything about the town, except for two things: Natsuno, the boy she has a crush on, and the large house that was built on Kanemasa hill. Throughout her life she dreamt of escaping the slow, sleepy village and making it to the city life, where she believes that she can actually enjoy herself. One day, a family moves in to the Kanemasa house. Intrigued, Megumi decides to go visit the family and say her greetings. When the villagers find her next, she's lying half dead in a forest, with no visible external injuries except for two insect bites. She becomes the first victim of the village, succumbing to an unknown illness. Natsuno, who was the victim of Megumi's stalking, thinks of it as somewhat of a relief, since he finds himself free to open his curtains once again without the fear of being watched from the bushes. But even as this relief comes, he soon finds himself closing his curtains again, unable to sleep at night as he feels as though something outside is watching him, watching his every move... Meanwhile, the waka-sensei (young doctor) Ozaki is trying to figure out the truth behind the sudden epidemic that seems to be causing deaths all over the village. People die and the people around them disappear, moving out with no warning at all. His frustration builds up as he discovers that all suffer from anemia and its various symptoms, but he fails to piece it all together. One idea, one clue is all he needs to figure out the cause behind all the mysterious deaths.. The first half of Shiki is somewhat slow moving and works to build on the atmosphere of the situations and the characters themselves, making this similar to Monster in its own way. We follow Dr. Ozaki as he works furiously to determine the cause of the deaths, and Natsuno, as he discovers the truth in his own way and attempts to confront it. Both characters develop, but more attention is given to Ozaki as his frustration increases and he begins to lash out at his close associates, suffering under the pressure he has as the village's doctor. Meanwhile Natsuno joins hands with the few people who believe him and attempt to prove the existence of Shiki (corpse-demons), called the Risen in the village folk-lore. However, once we reach the second half, the slow pace is removed and things start moving faster. The tension builds up rapidly, before the climax, and the gore-fest that follows it. All immensely satisfying. One thing I absolutely love about Shiki, apart from how atmospheric and tense it is, is the fact that it follows traditional vampire folklore, while placed in an Eastern environment. This means that Shiki can't walk in broad daylight, they are weak around religious objects, and of course, they can't enter a house unless they are invited inside. Characters (9/10) This show has quite a large number of characters, but unlike Angel Beats!, they all are realistic, interesting, and fairly well developed to the point that you can understand why they do what they do. Of course, my favourite character throughout the show is Ozaki himself, who is now one of my favourite anime heroes of all time. I say heroes subjectively, however. While he appears heroic to me, to many others he is seen as a villain. His morality, in the second half, is constantly in question, and you can see the characters choosing sides based on his actions. Ozaki isn't your classic perfect-white character; neither is he the dark gray that Light Yagami was. He's directly in the middle, with the shades of black equal to the shades of white, making him the most intriguing protagonist that I've seen in a while. In fact, the last time I thought so much about the main character was probably Code Geass. I could sense some sort of darkness lurking behind his sarcastic attitude and him impatience, and as it built up before that episode, I was literally quivering in anticipation. Then it happened, and, for the first time since third episode of Higurashi, I got goosebumps on my arm. That scene was terrible in its own way. It will shock you to your core, and ultimately it is your view on it that will decide which side you prefer in the show. On the other hand, Natsuno, who has relatively less importance, is given less development. At the beginning, he is an arrogant individual who refuses to even recognize Megumi even as she tries to talk to him, which probably gave him the whole stalking problem in the first place. In fact, the only thing that he even accepts about her is her wish to leave the town, which he reciprocates. However, as time goes on, he realizes the importance of the people around him and their support in his struggle against the Shikis. Then there's the junior monk, Seishin. He is Ozaki's closest friend, yet their positions couldn't be more different. While Ozaki uses modern age medicine to cure people of illnesses, Seishin uses ritualistic traditions to give them proper send offs. Similarly, he is among the first to discover the existence of the Shiki; but rather than attack them and kill them all, he decides to try to understand them and their motives, which seem to be somehow resonate with the motives of a character in the book he is writing. Surprisingly, even the Shiki are given development, enough for the watcher to understand and pity them as they are dragged to their inevitable deaths. A perfect example of this is Megumi, whose stalker syndrome becomes a full blown obsession after she rises, and she begins to attack those who she believes to be too close to Natsuno. Her death, in a way, was the most heartfelt of all the Shiki because she still displays her recognizable human traits until the very end, which invokes a sense of sorrow in the people who are hunting her down. Others include Masao, the despicable self-obsessed person who turns into a Shiki displaying those same characteristics with that same annoying face; Tatsumi, who is one of the few vampires who can walk around in sunlight; Nao, whose undying love for her family caused her to attack them in the hope of allowing them to live an everlasting life as she does now; Sunako, and Chizuru. Sunako, in her own way, is the Dracula of the series. She is the brains behind the operation, and fills the classic horror-anime role of the young girl who knows way too much at such a young age. If you know what I mean. Like Maria Ushiromiya from Umineko. She too, is given development, but anything beyond what I just said will be spoilers. Chizuru, on the other hand, uses her looks to seduce unsuspecting men, and is always on the lookout for an interesting man who can entertain her. Hmmph. An interesting idea that they added into the story is that the Shiki retain their consciousness and their pre-mortem (?) behaviour. This really adds to the emotional quotient of the show, besides letting Shiki appear neither truly good or bad, and also adding much more punch to the aforementioned scene. Music and Sound (9/10) I couldn't resist mentioning this in the review, because I absolutely love the music. It stands out among the various traditional instrumentals that we hear in most anime; the soundtrack of Shiki really shines since ethereal vocals power the background music. It really gets you on edge and adds to the tension of the situation. My favourite song in the whole soundtrack is definitely Eau de Vie (Water of Life in French) and Silent Night, beautiful tracks that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. Like most anime, you see that the opening song changes around episode 13. The original opening, Kuchikuzuke was strange, depressing, and haunting just like the anime itself; but I could never really warm up to it. On the other hand, the ending seemed out of place but catchy. In the second half, the roles were reversed and I found the opening catchy, but out of place, and the ending more haunting. No doubt most of the voice actors are either very good or competent; however, I had problems listening to Masao's voice, whose voice actor kept stressing on all the 'k's and making them sound like 'kh's. It might match his personality, but at times it went overboard and I got irritated just listening to it. Presentation (8/10) As a whole, the animation is fairly fluid, but nothing really stands out, even in HD. It plays its part, which is good enough, but don't expect jaw dropping scenes from this anime. Just expect a whole lot of red in the last few episodes. An important thing to mention is that this anime is extremely graphic. Not just blood all over place, even Higurashi has that (except with lolis). This anime has nearly no violence until the middle, when everything becomes clear to our main characters, and the sudden violence hits you hard just like it should, rather than the feeling that 'oh, people are going to die' that you get from Higurashi. When people die, they actually die. The show makes this brutally clear. Besides that, this is the first anime I've seen that shows decomposing bodies. No, literally decomposing. The first time I saw one, I got my first jumpscare since Higurashi. I've never seen any other anime do that, perhaps because its far too explicit. Next about character designs....yeah about that. Most characters look alright, I mean Ozaki looks kinda weird at times, Natsuno has a strange hairstyle, Masao looks like an idiot, yeah we can live with those. My major gripe comes when the Shiki are involved. When we first see them, they look like complete idiots. No literally, they look retarded. Like they were pulled out of Disneyland. I mean, take a look at their hairstyles. Who even wears that kind of stuff? Shouldn't the villagers be wary of a strange man with strange white hair in a strange hair style? Yet it seems to bother them none. Besides that, the hair colour of the main characters can be questionable, mostly involving Ricchan (who has green hair and another strange hair pattern), Natsuno (purple) and Megumi (neon pink). We see these hair colours in most anime but it seems kind of strange, considering how dark this anime really is. Some may consider it to show that it's a normal village in an abnormal situation, but it takes away from the shock factor in some situations, just looking at that glowing pink hair. The story is presented in the normal suspense-thriller fashion, with the search for the culprit occupying the first half, and the resolution and subsequent, rampage to kill the culprits occupying the second half. However, this show takes care to tell you both sides of the story. As the humans lose control and kill all they view as suspicious, we see Shiki who fail to understand their sins, their only wish being to stay alive. They have no idea why they are being punished for living. At the same time, you see a mother's pain as her Shiki father-in-law slowly kills off her family, and her losing her grip on her sanity as her husband, mother in law, and her children is taken. It's hard hitting and true; you can easily imagine these reactions if such a thing were to occur in real life. Final Verdict (9/10) When I went into this show, I wasn't expecting something so deep and philosophical as Shiki is. The last vampire show I watched was Hellsing X Ultimate, which is basically the polar opposite of Shiki. It requires no brains at all; it simply involves an incredibly strong protagonist causing a sea of blood in his wake. Shiki, on the other hand, humanizes the Shiki and their fear of being ostracized and forsaken by God; while at the same time exposing the monster that lurks inside the mind of humans. We don't have the classic 'you shouldn't kill for revenge' that we see so often; Ozaki urges the people on by reminding them of their lost loved ones and telling them to massacre the Shiki in revenge. Shiki is a show that goes far from the classic formulaic anime; and it does it with such confidence and poise that you can't help but love it. When I started out, I wanted to watch Shiki as a possible anime adaptation of Salem's Lot, and while it has its similarities; by the end I am forced to accept Shiki's brilliance and accept it as not just an adaptation, but perhaps one of the most compelling versions of the classic Dracula story till date. It's not just mindless killing. It's a vampire show that requires you to question your own moralities, make your own decisions, and for me, it is the best suspense anime that I've ever seen. No, it's not fair to call it a vampire tale; it's a tale of Shiki.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 7, 2015
Fairy Tail
(Anime)
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It's hard to remember a time when you're absolutely confident that Fairy Tail makes sense. Most of the time it's just trying to make you laugh. Another point to mention would be that it is basically pseudo ecchi, with Lucy/Erza's shirt being 75% ripped off during every fight, by law. The worst of the case is at the Tower of Heaven when Lucy and Juvia have to fight some rock-obsessed weirdo. What goes on over there is for you to see for yourself.
Besides that, the show is quite enjoyable. I was able to watch the fillers between the episodes and sometimes even laugh a little, ... but episodes 125-150 are horrible. I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. There's a troop of twerking weirdoes. What is it about you say? There are wizards/mages with magical abilities. These people can use their magical abilities for various purposes, generally to carry out missions and earn their living. Mages together form various guilds, such as Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, and of course, Fairy Tail. These guilds are watched over by the Magical Council, which often seems more stupid than not. Our main characters, Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Erza Scarlet, Lucy Heartfilia and Happy all belong to Fairy Tail. Being shounen, the main belief behind Fairy Tail as a guild is to always stand by your friends and protect them. Natsu Dragneel is a (not so) rare Dragonslayer. He specializes in Fire Dragon Slaying magic, which means that he can swallow flames, and eating flames gives him energy. He keeps spamming three moves during most of the show. He is stupid (aren't they all?) and eats a lot (don't they all?) but ends up being powerful and more likeable than Naruto in the end. Gray Fullbuster is the most level headed of the team and uses Ice Maker magic, which requires both creativity and logic. He and Natsu don't get along, which often paves the way for comedic effect. Erza Scarlet comes off as eccentric when you first meet her. She is respected by all Fairy Tail members as the most powerful female wizard (something which was once disputed, but no spoilers here). She can requip into any type of armor, with offense being inversely proportional to defense (there I go with scientific terms again). Lucy Heartfilia seems like she was created for the sole purpose of fan-service, and to act as a narrator. As I've mentioned before, her clothes come off with the regularity of a dog shedding its fur. She's a Celestial Wizard, someone who uses magical keys to summon spirits to do their bidding. Her goal is to collect all twelve Zodiac keys. One of the first things you will notice about the show is the amount of Japanese letters used in the show, placed above the heads of characters to give comedic effect or to enhance a point. The next thing will be the fact that arcs are surprisingly short. Most arcs range from 10 episodes to around 20. Thankfully, as the series progresses, the arcs get longer. Another thing is the lack of training. We all remember how Ichigo had to train with Kisuke to learn swordsmanship, then with Hiyori to control his hollow. Gon worked hard to meet Killua once again after the Hunter's Exam. Even Goku trained to become strong enough to defeat the Saiyans. But Natsu? Never trains. The one time they decide to train, they manage one day and get side tracked for the rest of the time. The Japanese dub, as usual, is enjoyable. At the same time, the English dub deserves mention. I don't know names, except for one person, so I'll just compare them with other famous anime. Natsu has the same actor as Ling from FMA, Lucy as Suzaha Amane from Steins;Gate (she did better as Suzaha imo), Erza is Collen Clinkenbeard, and various other characters have notable voice actors as well. They all do well to emphasize the comedic effect in most situations. Besides that, they introduce Natsu as some sort of powerful dragonslayer, which is interesting at first. But then dragonslayers start popping up out of nowhere, and in the end you think Gray has a more rare ability than Natsu. Cuz I haven't seen another guy with maker magic. And if I have, I don't remember them. Overall, watch it if you have time to kill and you want some fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 19, 2015
Sword Art Online
(Anime)
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I came into this anime prepared to hate it. All the reviews I saw online, especially on MAL, ranged between 'terrible' to 'satisfactory'. I thought Sword Art Online was just an overhyped compilation of bullshit, that I would end up forcing myself through each episode. And because of this, I cast a critical eye on every episode early on, refusing to accept its strengths and only focussing on its failures. Because of this, it took me several episodes until I realized that by criticizing every episode, I was stopping myself from recognizing the charm of this anime.
It was only after this that I began appreciating ... this anime. Unlike most people, I won't claim that SAO is the messiah for all anime; because it's not perfect, not even close. But on the other hand, I won't place it below Queen's Blade; everyone who does that is overreacting to the extremely large and devoted fan base this anime has. Sword Art Online can be broadly divided into two arcs: the first, Sword Art Online Arc, which is quite impressive, and the largely terrible second arc, Alfheim Online. In fact, the thought and quality put into these arcs are so vastly different, that I'm going to review them separately. Sword Art Online This arc comprises of the first fourteen episodes of the first season, and are the main - if not only - reason I like this show. Story In the not too distant future, on a sunny summer day, the first Virtual MMORPG releases: Sword Art Online, a game that contains a fully interactive world. It's the first to use the revolutionary NerveGear, which allows you to control your projection in the virtual world using your mind. Effectively, you are being transported to the world of Sword Art Online. Kazuto 'Kirito' Kirigaya is a former beta tester of Sword Art Online, and he's confident when he goes in, confident enough to help the newbie Kelin. But everything turns for the worse when they realize that the 'Log Out' option is no longer available, trapping them within the world of Sword Art Online. It isn't long before the mastermind behind SAO, Kayaba Akihiko, shows up, declaring that their lives in the real world and their lives in Sword Art Online are linked. If they die in SAO, they die in the real world. And only if all 100 floors of the Ainclad castle are cleared, are the people released from this nightmare. It's a simple, common premise. Our gaming otaku hero is trapped within a game himself. He has to fight, with the power of love from his friends, to overcome the greatest evil and save everyone around him. We've seen it all before, but something is more attractive about Sword Art Online. Maybe it's the death penalty that makes this anime take itself more seriously than its predecessors. Characters Yeah, well, I'm not too fond of the characters of Sword Art Online myself. That's because, despite their impressive screen time, most characters feel underdeveloped. Kirito, for example. Even to the end, he feels too perfect for his own good. He's always caring for others, always spouting out beautifully crafted philosophical lines, always sacrificing for others, always standing up for the downtrodden. Above all, he's a chick magnet. Even in the first episode, he seems to know way too much about the working of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, which made him feel like more of an automatic answering machine than a real person. (This knowledge is explained in the second arc, when they say he's been obsessed with machines since he was small.) Our primary heroine, and one of the many young women who fall in love with Kirito, is Asuna Yuuki. She's the prettiest girl in all of Japan, or at least the prettiest gaming girl, which represents like 10% of all girls. At the beginning she's displayed as shadowy and independent, before going a complete character turnaround by the end of the same episode that she's introduced. Once again, the next time we see her, she's strong-willed, but it isn't long before she becomes Kirito's personal cook, with the price of getting to eat half the food she makes. Despite all this, she's quite likeable, even as her obsession with Kirito escalates to the point that they get married and leave in the middle of the game to camp off in the middle of the woods to get time together. Yes, you read that correctly. Kayaba Akihiko is an intriguing villain character. In a way, I can relate to him; to see people duke it out in a death match in a world of your own making is thrilling in a way. No, don't make that face. From gladiators to the Hunger Games, mankind has always been excited by battles that involve unfair odds. Even to the end, I liked him more than most characters who are introduced. Other characters include Klein, who becomes more and more powerful as time goes on, all the Knights of the Blood Order, that blacksmith guy, and, uhhh, yeah. Pretty much every female character who is introduced has a brief romance affair with Kirito, and realize within one day that they want to bear Kirito's babies and live with him for the rest of his life. Okay fine, I forgive Lisbeth. But Silica? A small loli? And they even try to get some fanservice out of her. Not to mention that tentacle scene. At first I thought that was the tentacle scene everyone was talking about, but it turns out that SAO has more than one. Besides that, the creators of Sword Art Online seem to think that ten minutes is enough time to bond with a character. In around half the episodes, we see characters introduced at the 5 minute mark die by the 15 minute mark, and we are forced to bear witness to the various grievings of Kirito and....everyone else, while we feel nothing at all. Cuz ten minutes man. We ain't gonna cry for some guy we met ten minutes ago. KEEP THEM ALIVE FOR SOME MORE TIME Presentation This is where Sword Art Online really shines. Ask anyone. The animation quality in this show is just fantastic. I can't even guess how much money they used on this baby. For those of you who must know, it's the same people who animated Anohana, and I loved the animation in that show. From the scenic backdrops to the details on the sword to some fantastic action sequences, everything visual about this anime is meticulously taken care of. Fight sequences are smooth and great looking, and most of all, generally fast paced. This is obviously helped by the fact that all characters use swords, and heck, swords are awesome weapons (second only to scythes, which Soul Eater made me love). Every character who is given attention is distinct and easily recognizable, with the common habit of everyone having different hair colours. The setting is varied, but medieval. You'll see knights in armour and brick walls all over the place, and it looks beautiful. Above just the animation is the beautiful music. This anime has one of the best OSTs I've ever had the luck to listen to. I mean, I just LOVE the music of this anime. It can range from peaceful (like the forest) to dramatic and enthralling, especially the music during battle. Overall It would've been sooooo much better if Sword Art Online ended here. Ignoring the fact that everything until now probably sounded pretty negative, this arc is one of the best game-reality mixes that I've seen. Add the medieval setting to that with a main character with dual swords, and you have a winner. For anyone looking for a good action anime with romance, look no further. On the downside, there are a bit too many romances, and all of them except Kirito and Asuna's feel fake. Besides the fact that most of their relationship development takes place off-screen (over the span of 2 years), I felt some episodes were oversaturated with the love factor. Characters were underdeveloped, and the director seemed to assume we'd grow attached to them a lot more quickly than we actually do. Despite it's faults, I recommend Sword Art Online to anyone in search of some good plain fun. This anime is all about that: a dish of fun, with some seriousness sprinkled on top. Prepared by Asuna of course. A warning though; the ending to the arc is pretty disappointing, but satisfying nonetheless. Alfheim Online Okay, an important note here. When I go into rage mode, I don't control my spoilerific dialogue. So in case, you haven't watched the show, a shit load of spoilers for the second arc follow. I swear, if only they had ended it at the fourteenth episode. I didn't mind the ending that much, and most people wouldn't either, unless they were looking for faults. This anime would've been so much better without Alfheim. Why do I say that? Because this arc insults everything that I loved about Sword Art Online. As usual, with my rage writing, I'm not gonna divide this, and it's gonna be filled with sarcasm. In the aftermath of the SAO incident, with Kirito returning alive, he now starts a romance with his sister. This sister, who manages to serve a purpose but still feels like she exists for fanservice, kept her feeling under control until she finds out that Kirito isn't her real brother. Which of course, is the perfect reason to fall completely in love with him. Just like everyone else. But Kirito doesn't care for her in a KissXSis way, much to her chagrin. He only thinks of her as little Sugu, his darling younger sister. And he still cares for the beautiful and tragic Asuna, who never woke up from SAO and is still in a coma. Meanwhile, Kirito meets Asuna everyday, staring at her on her hospital bed, and often running into her poor father. On one of these days, Yuuki-san reveals his plans to marry his comatose daughter to a pedophilic rapist that he considers to be his son. All without her permission of course. This pedo-guy is the main villain of this arc, as you might have guessed, and is so pathetic I can't even remember his name even though I finished the show today. It turns out that pedo-guy is in charge of a new virtual reality game called Alfheim Online. Yes. For some reason, despite the fact that 9,400 people died during the SAO fiasco and another 300 haven't woken up, nobody bothered to ban virtual reality games and headsets. And because of this, pedo-man decides to abuse his power and conduct experiments on players in his game to stimulate emotions to manipulate people. And there's a dirty American company that's interested in this information. Unlike Akihiko, pedo-man is not intellectually stimulating at all. I can't relate to him in any way. In fact, the only way I can elate to him is that we're both males. That's pretty much it. Besides that, he has a creepy, sleazy voice in Japanese, which changes to high-pitched wailing when he's hurt. THE MOST annoying voice possible, perhaps even eclipsing Emperor Pilaf. Not to mention that he spends almost three-fourths of his screen time feeling Asuna's body. Anyways, back with the story. It turns out, as he reveals while sniffing Asuna's hair, that he trapped Asuna inside Alfheim online so she can't wake up and reject the marriage. And her dumbass father doesn't have any clue what's going on. He also reveals his wish to do her both inside the game and in real life when she's in comatose state, which sounds downright necrophiliac to me. In order to save her, Kirito decides to enter Alfheim. If you thought there were problems before, oh boy, you are in for a TREAT. He meets his busty cousin, Suguha, in the form of Leafa. Granted, Sugu looks different in the game; however, she can't recognize her own brother despite the fact that the only thing that changed about him was his hairstyle. And his pointy ears. That's another thing. If you want to see all of your favourite SAO characters turn itno weird looking elves, well this anime's got you covered. So Kirito magically gets his stats from SAO because they're using the same server, making him so ridiculously overpowered that he's the strongest player on the planet the moment he starts out. Because of this, there's no need to waste time training since he can basically beat everyone he meets. More time for Leafa and her chest then! The fanservice in this second arc is mind blowing, from the various leaders of factions developing a crush on Kirito within moments of meeting him and trying to seduce him with sex appeal. God damn. Anyways, Kirito blows through his opponents because he's Kirito, and the power of love and friendship is always stronger than actual power. It's only towards the end that he uses help, and that's after coming farther than an entire squad got. And this backup comes equipped with weapons bought from his vast stores of money that he generously gave to the aforementioned leaders. Leaving him broke, of course, but he's Kirito so it doesn't matter. Meanwhile, Asuna is also in elf form. Her main purpose in this arc is to sit inside an actual bird cage, and wait for pedo-necro-man to come and feel her body. The one time she actually escapes, she gets caught when she's feeling happy. By two slugs. With tentacles. You know where this is going. There's and uncomfortably long purple tentacle scene, with them wrapping around her waist, thighs....you get the idea. Then she's sent back. At long last, Kirito and Leafa realize that they're acutally brother and sister. Leafa reveals that she fell in love with Kirito to forget about Kazuto, but since they're the same guy, epic fail. But they reconcile while ballerina dancing in the air (you'll see what I mean) and with her help and the assistance of those two leaders, Kirito breaks into the cage and saves Asuna before getting caught by pedo-man. The following fight is disgusting and forgettable. As a game master, pedo-man increases gravity till Kirito and Asuna can't move. Then he proceeds to strip Asuna of her clothes, drinking the tears ff her skin as she cries and licking her face. As he moves down to her legs, Kirito is reminded that he has the power of love and somehow replaces pedo-man as the administrator, leading to an extremely one-sided and stupid fight. But the actual ending of the show is good. Kind of. Overall If it was just Sword Art Online, this show would've got somewhere between an 8 and an 8.5. But the presence of Alfheim Online degrades it. A lot. And hopefully you understood that from the part above.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 19, 2015
Tokyo Ghoul
(Anime)
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Most peple on the internet declared it to be the greatest anime of 2014. Beautiful fan art of it filled my feed. My friend literally begged me to watch it. And so, I watched the all twelve episodes of Tokyo Ghoul.
Story Yeah, well, you probably know the story by now. Characters The characters are pretty much standard fare anime characters. We have the whiny, powerful main character who does almost absolutely nothing during the entire show except for cry and wonder why he is so weak without bothering to try to make himself stronger. The only hero who bugged me even more than the brilliantly named 'Kaneki ... Ken-kun' was Yuuki from Mirai Nikki. If you can even call that guy a hero. But it hurts more in Tokyo Ghoul because Kaneki has so much potential, and can easily be one of the strongest Ghouls around, but decides to spend 95% of the anime wailing. The last ten minutes give him credit though. And he looks freaking awesome with that mask. Rize has far less screen time than most other characters, but is more important than most of them. It is because her organs are transplanted into Kaneki that he develops his ghoul powers, his kagemune, and becomes a one eyed ghoul. She appears time to time, usually seducing our main hero while trying to convince him to accept his ghoul powers and use them. Touka is kind of a mix of two characters. On one count, she reminds me of Mikasa Ackerman of SHingeki no Kyojin because of her attitude and her raw power, besides her latent arrogance. I mean, the moment I saw her, I thought 'Mikasa'. There's one huge difference though. Touka is a tsundere, while Mikasa is a partial yandere. Not Yuno level, but she is obsessed with Eren. The second one, and I realized this immediately too, is her appearence resembles Mei Misaki from Another. They both have navy-blue hair that covers one of their eyes. I don't know, it just popped into my mind. She's probably the most interesting of all the characters anyhow. We then have a bunch of characters who, as usual, I didn't really care much for. There's the painfully and blatantly evil Mado (I think that's his name), the heroic Amos who has a couple of minutes wondering about the morality of what he's doing, the cooking guy who is basically the Orochimaru of this anime (pedophilic, continuously licking his lips). Not to mention that white haired kid who looks kinda like a girl, and a bunch of police guys. I mean, I don't even remember hearing their names. And there's Jason, a sadistic and overly-violent ghoul. Another character is Hide, who is basically Kaneki's best friend, but his importance basically diminished as the show went on. Unfortunately, I didn't really like many of the characters of the show, and I kept feeling like I saw all of them somewhere else. Presentation On the animation front, I have absolutely no problems. I don't think I've paused the video in order to absorb in the beauty of the animation this much for any other show. And this is remarkable, because Tokyo Ghoul entirely takes place in a mundane metropolitan background. They don't even get chances to render stunning vistas like Sword Art Online did, but it impressed me all the same. The sound didn't really stick out much, but the voice actors play their parts well and match the characters. The opening is something to be admired and matches ethereal vocals with beautiful imagery. The animation studio is the same one that took care of Bleach, so they're pretty experienced. Something I should mention about this show: it's very gory. I mean, not like Corpse Party gore. Or maybe it is. Unfortunately, the anime right now is only available in the censored version, which means your experience will freqeuntly be marred by unnatural black shadows running acorss someone's stomach. But when the uncensored version does come out, you're gonna see lots of graphic imagery. Ghouls eat humans after all, so don't be surprised if you see one bite off a chunk of meat. As for how the idea is presented...that's what I really wanted to talk about. Once again, Tokyo Ghoul feels like a collection of various ideas that I've seen in various other shows. For example, its moral ambiguity. Throughout the entire show, Tokyo Ghoul wants to make you wonder whether humans are right to kill ghouls as monsters or not. Many anime before this one have tried this idea, but the only other show that has it this fleshed out is Shiki, and I know most people won't agree with me, but I think Shiki did it better. Shiki was more of a mystery, and less intermittently splattered with blood. Because of this, it humanizes (is that the right word here, considering what I'm talking about?) both sides until you actually care for both races. On the other hand, Tokyo Ghoul's viewpoint is primarily from the Ghouls, with humans mostly being depicted as arrogant people who kill ghouls and look down upon them. Throughout the series, you'll be supporting the ghouls without a second thought for mankind. In fact, humans are made so easily hateable that you'll wish all of them were dismembered without a second thought. The only morally grey character is Amos, and he felt to perfect and heroic, and loaded with judgemental ideas to be likeable, so I wanted him to die too. Another thing is those eyes. Those eyes. Seen them somewhere? Maybe, maybe not. If you have, it just might be Shiki, where black eyes with red irises are used to distinguish the Shiki from humans. Sound familiar? In this anime, it's what is used to differentiate between ghouls and humans. I can make a vague reference to Lucy's hands in Elfen Lied about Kaneki's kagemune, but that isn't really valid because Kaneki's power looks more like tentacles. Let's hope that doesn't go down the wrong road one day. Just kidding, Tokyo Ghoul is too good to go down the same road that Sword Art Onine went on. Then, as you approach the final episodes of the show, we get an extended and mostly unnecessary torture scene that brought up memories of RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne, whose first or second episode features a similarly sadistic antagonist and a similarly fast-regenerating protagonist. Of course, RIN was far more explicit and would probably have to be completely censored (for a good reason this time) but you know what I'm talking about. The show contains some shounen elements like Kaneki not wanting to hurt anyone, but that gets rectified by the end of the series. Overall Tokyo Ghoul feels more like a prologue to something else far more interesting. While the animation was well taken care of, the idea of thrusting 60 chapters into 12 episode is not logically sound, and led to us losing most of the interesting details in the process. It also feels like there were too many arcs in such a short span, and seeing someone who was absolutely hated three episodes earlier helping our heroes is kind of jarring. Besides that, it also feels like an amalgamation of ideas from other anime piled into one. While most others may like the idea, I sat there and throughout the show I thought 'Hey, nice idea. But it was better done in (insert anime name here)'. Overall, watch it, because it's still pretty good despite its faults. Be prepared for a blood-fest, though. With a lot of black lines. Story: 7 Art: 8 Sound: 8 Character: 6 Enjoyment: 7 Overall: 7 NOTE: I'm enjoying the second season more, although the opening is now crap.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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